Tonto on Vacation, or How to Be an Indian Lawyer

This essay investigates the Dell Comics series titled The Lone Ranger's Companion Tonto, produced between 1951 and 1959. In stark contrast to the other versions of this popular Indian character that appeared at one time or another in various media, the Dell comic books depict a Tonto who operates on his own, without the white Ranger at his side. These 1950s comic books, I argue, reflect the dominant culture's fantasy about the purpose of the newly formed Indian Claims Commission (ICC), created in 1946 as a "final solution" to the so-called "Indian problem." In this public fantasy, Tonto is made to play the role of the "Indian lawyer": a strategic go-between who ostensibly works on behalf of Indian tribes but who actually promotes the expropriation of Indigenous lands and the assimilation of Indigenous nations.